Failure of foreign Aid to reduce poverty in Africa.

In the past 55 to 60 years more than $1 trillion in Foreign Aid has gone to Africa. Despite the Aid and the enormous natural resources of many of the nations, majority of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa keep getting poorer.

While the agony in most of these nations affects the majority of the population, the children, the youths and the elderly have been particularly impacted. According to Global Finance magazine, the majority of the poorest countries in the world are in Africa, and the top 10 poorest countries are all in Sub-Saharan Africa. The irony is that many of these “poor” countries have far more natural resources than many of the developed nations of the world.

The most formidable barriers to progress and development in many of the nations in SSA are the post-independent leaders of these Sub-Saharan African nations who have presided over the decimation of the subcontinent. No amount of foreign aid to these poor performing nations will reverse the poverty in the region unless there is significant improvement in the performance of the leadership.

The endemic corruption, selfishness, greed, injustice and poor governance must be addressed from within these nations. Some of these nations certainly need help. But first, they must start helping themselves. Sub-Saharan Africans have been bequeathed with all the tools needed to develop their nations, i.e. human and natural resources. Thus, they must shed the culture of dependency on the rest of the human race.

The developed nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, (IMF), the United Nations and its various agencies, the major donor entities, Foundations and Non-profit organizations must totally restructure their Aid strategy. They must demand honesty, accountability, and transparency from the leaders of the recipient nations.

To continue the Aid delivery systems of the past several decades is a huge disservice to the hundreds of millions of the population trapped in grinding poverty in many of these nations. The donors must stop “building” the nations of SSA. The donors and developed nations should only help Sub-Saharan Africans to help themselves !!! To do otherwise is to be a willing participant in the suppression of these nations.

Sub-Saharan Africans must start building their own roads, bridges, airports, schools, research facilities, hospitals, pharmaceutical industries, water reservoirs, dams, energy installations, security apparatus and they must develop their agriculture.